How we learned to stop having fun

[undergroundpanther]

Beginning in England in the 17th century, the European world was stricken by what looks, in today's terms, like an epidemic of depression. The disease attacked both young and old, plunging them into months or years of morbid lethargy and relentless terrors, and seemed - perhaps only because they wrote more and had more written about them - to single out men of accomplishment and genius.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0%2C%2C2048204%2C00.html

[Hestia]

1. I think this statement hits the nail on the head

But if there was, in fact, a beginning to the epidemic of depression, sometime in the 16th or 17th century, it confronts us with this question: could this apparent decline in the ability to experience pleasure be in any way connected with the decline in opportunities for pleasure, such as carnival and other traditional festivities?

What must it have been like in ancient days to have an entire town out for a celebration, with statues of gods and goddesses paraded and vivified? How I wish we lived in a world where this was done today...image a world wide Mardi Gras instead of just Carnivale in a few places

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Couple your theories with the contemporaneous rise of Puritanism which

advocated hard work and piety as a proper way of life. Recreation, frivolity, and irreverence were frowned upon and discouraged.

[ixion]

3. yep, spot on, that

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. Yeah, the earlier centuries were a hoot ...

The inquisition, the feudal wars, famines, the plagues, all great fun. Big parties when the hordes from the east came to visit.

Pre-17th-century folks knew how to have a good time!

[EnviroBat]

5. How could this be?

Most of us that do have jobs that pay well are little more than slaves to them. 5-days a week we get up before the sun, shower, dress, get in the car to run some insane fucking road-race that everyone around us is trying desperately to "win". We plunk down in some cubicle, listening to the barrage of white noise generators in some machine that's supposed to feel like an office building. then we put up with co-workers and their ever-changing bullshit, all the while tiptoeing around the urge to verbally shred them, and tell them where they can shove their "new great ideas." Then we worry about the mortgage, the bills, the kids, our health, being outsourced. And if we make it through the day without blowing a microchip or two, we jump back in the car to run the same insane race back home. There we take care of the things we can't get accomplished while stuck in the stupid cubicle, and try not to get to bed to late so as not to feel like shit the following day, which will be a carbon copy repeat of today. Honestly, shouldn't there be more to life than these fleeting moments of freedom? Are the occasional vacations, (those of us that can afford them), away from the workplace all we have to look forward to? Sometimes it all feels like such a waste to me. There HAS to be more to life than this rut. No wonder depression is an epidemic. But don't worry, the pharmaceutical companies can keep you happy and productive good citizen...

[Hestia]

6. My DH and I were in a discussion about this last week

Our conclusion is that though you have to follow the 'rules' of this reality, you can also change them. This is what scares the shit out of TPTB, that we, together, really have the power but refuse to use it. They'll do anything in their power to keep us divided and use any tactic to distract us, Iraq and Iran being the largest. Think of the 100th monkey theory. We are there now, in small ways, and look at how much harder * keeps trying to convince us that we are wrong and he is right. The problem is, a segment of our society questions their personal power that is inate in all of us, and 'believe' what he is saying. It is our job to convince them otherwise. We really are all connected and the Power lies with us.

Yes, we must purge what is horrible, but be careful in keeping what works. To me, "Blast From the Past" is study in this. In the 1960s the people really tried to get rid of TPTB but also purged good manners, respect, civility and control. I don't mean in the 1950s repressive way, but our way.

==

Yes, the Dark Ages/Medieval times were dark and repressive in their own right, but there were still May Day celebrations, Winter Solstice celebrations that were done on a village scale. There was something to look forward too. The Goddess was still worshipped in some areas of Europe and Mary's correlations were Mary Magadalene, not the Virgin Mary, who was venerated on purpose. The church wanted to control HOW the Goddess was worshipped, so changed MM to the VM. Things were different than the Official and Sanctioned History that we are taught now. People had an outlet to purge their shadowselves and bring their lives back into balance. We don't have those large, town wide celebrations to do that today.

[zippy890]

7. we're supposed to be happy on our time off with all

the wonderful material things we can buy and consume.
Big tvs, cars, video games,
look at all the choices we have in the soda/snack aisle at the supermarket!

yes we are alienated, detached, depressed. isolated. somethings not right, can't put my finger on it,

maybe its me, like in the commercial, maybe I have that 'restless leg syndrome' er sumethin.

we are slaves to our way of life, we are made to be slaves because we must work these fucking jobs to get health insurance because we'd go broke paying for an appendectomy.

frayed nerves just working the 9-5, taking care of my elderly mother, my family, health issues
an eye on the government, an eye on the gas tank, on the weird weather,
my frikking co-worker won't shut up about American Idol. other co-worker is quietly freaking out, drinking problem.

What are working for again?
...